


In Which Gray Has A Terrifying Wake Up Call

by nermansherman



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24761635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nermansherman/pseuds/nermansherman
Summary: Juvia is badly injured, and Gray suddenly has a lot of time to think about some hard subjects.
Relationships: Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser, Gruvia
Comments: 5
Kudos: 61





	In Which Gray Has A Terrifying Wake Up Call

Gray knew that Juvia would do anything for him. Ever since they had first met, it was obvious with the way she constantly followed him around, and gave him gifts, and seemed pretty obsessed with him. She loved him, to a incredibly scary degree from Gray’s point of view, and would do anything he asked. He had tried it out a couple times, for small things like going to the grocery store or picking up something he’d dropped, but felt so bad that he was using her love for his own gain he never did it again. 

What Gray  _ hadn’t _ considered, was that Juvia’s devotion to him meant that, to some extent, Juvia valued Gray’s life and safety over her own. In hindsight, it was painfully obvious, but hindsight was always 20/20. And realizing that now didn’t fix the situation he was in.

Gray sighed and ran a hand through his hair. This was all his fault. If he had been watching more closely, or if he had finished his spell faster, or if he had moved, Juvia wouldn’t be lying unconscious in the guild’s infirmary.

They were on their way back from a job when they ran into some bandits. It was a tougher battle than usual, since the bandits were also wizards, but it was nothing the two couldn’t handle. Supposedly. Gray had been focused on the wizard in front of him, and saw something out of the corner of his eye and ignored it in favor of finishing off his target. It was probably a wild animal anyway. He only realized it was another bandit when he heard Juvia’s scream. 

He turned to see her on the ground, unconscious with smoke coming off of her body. She was phasing between solid and liquid and Gray saw red. He disposed of the last bandit with an ice make: cannon and returned to Juvia’s side, trying his best to not lose it. He couldn’t pick her up, since she would have just slipped through his arms, so he was forced to freeze her. Every second of the process hurt him, but he just prayed Juvia couldn’t feel it.

When he entered the guild, carrying a frozen Juvia, everything stopped. Gray’s distress was painfully obvious and no one knew how to react to him, someone who was known for not being emotional, visibly panicked about Juvia. After a few moments, Wendy jumped up and ran into the infirmary, Gray on her heels. He carefully placed Juvia on a bed and Wendy began healing her at once.

“I-I had to. To freeze her. She was going in and out and I couldn’t-couldn’t touch her…” Gray mumbled, trying to explain why Juvia was more ice than water.

“Breathe, Gray. You aren’t making much sense. Let me help her, first, alright? I’m sure whatever happened wasn’t your fault,” Wendy said, trying to talk some sense into him. Gray took a shaky breath and nodded, looking at Juvia’s icy hand. He paused for a second, and then took it in his own. 

“Juvia, I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“Gray? I’ve done as much as I can right now, but the ice is blocking me. Can you do something about it?” Wendy asked carefully. He shook his head. “I’ll ask Natsu to melt her then.” She stood up to go get him.

“No!” Wendy sat back down. “I’m not gonna let flame brain anywhere near her. He’s only gonna make her worse. We can just wait for the ice to melt on its own.”

“Gray, I know you want to protect Juvia, but right now she’s stuck. I’ve done what I can, which means she probably won’t die, but if the ice doesn’t melt I can’t make sure she survives. Please, let me get Natsu. He won’t hurt her, and you’ll be right here if things get out of hand,” Wendy said. Gray shook his head. She sighed, and kept talking. “Right now, she has about a 40% chance of living. My Cure spell isn’t reaching her completely and I don’t know what kind of magic she was hit with so I can’t do anything more. The ice absolutely has to go, and we can’t wait for it to melt because I don’t know if Juvia will last that long. Please, Gray. Let Natsu help. For Juvia’s sake.”

Gray paused for a moment, then spoke. “For Juvia’s sake. Okay.” 

Wendy left the room quickly, and after a few minutes she returned with Natsu. He was much more serious than usual, and it was clear Wendy had explained how freaked out Gray was by the way the fire wizard acted.

“Hey, Gray?” Natsu used Gray’s name for what felt like the first time in their lives. “I’m gonna start on her shoulder, is that okay?” Gray gave him a stiff nod, and watched the flames slowly lick away the ice, revealing Juvia’s still shifting skin.

Wendy gasped, and finally understood what Gray had said earlier. Natsu was alarmed as well, but did his best to stay focused on his task and making sure to not hurt Juvia. Eventually, all that was left was the hand Gray was holding.

“Gray?” He looked up to see Natsu standing right next to him. “You’re gonna have to let go of her hand so I can melt the ice.” Natsu surprised everyone in the room with how gently he said that.

Gray swallowed and nodded stiffly, moving his hand to Juvia’s knee and rubbing small circles on it when her body was solid. Wendy had already resumed her Cure spell, and it seemed to be helping Juvia’s body solidify. Gray moved his hand back to Juvia’s and Natsu quietly left the room.

Inside, Gray was a mess. He was glad that Natsu had melted the ice and hadn’t hurt Juvia, but he hated how helpless he was. Juvia had sacrificed herself to protect him, and when she needed him the most, Gray couldn’t do anything. It was Wendy that was healing her, and it was Natsu who had melted Gray’s ice. All he had done was make it harder for Juvia to heal. He had always wondered what it was about him that Juvia was so infatuated with, and now he had even less of an idea than before. 

“I’ve done about all that I can, magic-wise. I’m running low on magic power so I can’t heal everything right now, but I think I’ve stabilized her body, so she shouldn’t change states anymore. I’m going to bandage her wounds now, if that’s alright with you,” Wendy said. Gray blinked. He hadn’t even realized how beat up Juvia was. She had some burn marks all over and a nasty scratch on her left forearm. 

“Okay.” Gray didn’t know how else to respond, really. She and Natsu treated him like he was in charge of giving medical consent for Juvia, and like he was going to shatter into a million pieces if they spoke too loudly. He didn’t really care what Wendy did, so long as it meant Juvia would live. 

He watched, silently, as Wendy carefully applied a burn cream to each burn and gently wrapped them. When she pulled out a needle, some thread, and a bottle of alcohol, he nearly screamed. Gray understood that the scratch needed to be cleaned and probably required stitches, but it would hurt Juvia. He held her hand like a life line and watched Wendy clean the scratch and stitch it closed. He winced every time the needle entered Juvia’s skin. It would probably scar, and leave Gray with a permanent reminder of how useless he was.

“I’m all done. She’ll be fine, her body just needs time to heal everything I couldn’t. I don’t know when she’s going to wake up, but she’ll live.” Wendy gently patted Gray on the shoulder and walked away. 

He moved his gaze away from her arm and looked at Juvia’s face, wishing she would wake up. This was all his fault. 

The next few days blurred together as Gray never moved from Juvia’s side. Mira would bring him food and a sad look three times a day, and sometimes other guild members popped in to check on the two wizards. Wendy would often come in to cast Cure and see if she could do anything else. But Juvia had yet to wake up. 

Sitting essentially by himself for days on end gave Gray a lot of time to think. At first, it was a lot of self deprecation for not paying attention. Then, it evolved into terrifying “what if” scenarios. What if Juvia never woke up? What if Juvia died? Those thoughts scared Gray more than anything before. He realized that Juvia meant a lot more to him than he had thought. That of course, fed right back into the self deprecation and solidified his fear that he was cursed. Everyone he had ever loved died while protecting him. His parents, Ur, Ultear, and now Juvia. Of course, Juvia wasn’t dead, but Gray was convinced that since he realized he loved her, it wouldn’t be long. Surely some freak accident would get her while she was unconscious. That’s why he never left her side. He had to protect her.

It was his fault she was here, hurt, and now he was going to do everything in his power to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt again. She loved him, and he promised himself that he would always be her—

“Gray-sama?”

Gray’s head snapped up to see Juvia looking at him. 

“Juvia!” He let go of her hand in favor of hugging her, being careful to not put his weight on her. “You’re okay!” He felt her hesitantly place her hands on his back.

“Gray-sama? Are you alright? You’ve never hugged Juvia like this before. Well, not that Juvia is complaining, but she is confused.”

Gray leaned back to look her in the eyes. “I’m just so glad you’re alright. I don’t know what I would have done if you died.”

Juvia’s eyes widened at that and she sat up. “What? Juvia almost died?”

“Yeah.” He swallowed, hard. “We were coming back from a job in Clover and got attacked by bandits. You took a hit meant for me and it messed you up pretty bad. You wouldn’t...you wouldn’t stay solid enough for me to pick you up, and I—” Gray shuddered before making eye contact with Juvia once again. “Promise me you will  _ never  _ do that again.”

Juvia’s brow furrowed. “What? Protect Gray-sama? Juvia will  _ not _ not do that again. It’s her job to protect him.”

“No it’s not!” Gray exclaimed. Juvia’s brow stayed furrowed, but she didn’t interrupt. “It’s my job. To protect me  _ and  _ to protect you. I-I can’t… I just… Fuck.”

“Gray-sama? What are you trying to say?”

“I’m…I—”

And then he was kissing her. Juvia stiffened in shock, before softening and kissing him back. He pulled away and she stared at him, confused.

“Shit I totally should have asked before I did that.”

Juvia giggled. “It’s alright, Gray-sama. And Juvia thinks she understands what you were trying to say, now. She’s just confused because this is so sudden.” 

“While I was sitting here, waiting for you to wake up, I had a lot of time to think. And since I was so worried about you, you were kinda the only thing I could think about. One thought led to another and I realized that I…” Gray trailed off at the end of his sentence. It felt weird to say it aloud. It wasn’t really a thought he often had toward anyone, and he had never actually said it to someone before.

“That you love Juvia?” she asked, completing his sentence.

“Yeah. I’m sorry I can’t actually say it. It just—”

“Juvia understands, it’s okay. And Juvia loves you too.” She smiled, and Gray had never seen her look more beautiful than in that moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is the first thing I've posted on AO3, everything else is on fanfiction.net so if you'd like to check out more of my work, look there! I will eventually post everything over there on here, but it'll take a second.
> 
> Oh boy wow okay so I was not planning on writing this at all but I read a fic kind of like this but less serious and decided to make my and everyone else's hearts hurt by making it more dramatic. Because what else do you do on a Tuesday afternoon?
> 
> I ship Gruvia so hard, I just wish Juvia was less annoying on the show. She’s so cool and so powerful but gets so distracted by Gray all the time that it makes me crazy. But I still love her and thought she deserved a happy ending.
> 
> I am posting this on ffn and AO3, under the same title and username, so if you see it on the other platform, don’t worry, it’s just me! (Probably. If it’s not, fight them. Like, just start throwing hands, no questions asked.)
> 
> -nerman


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